January 2 — Last night after everybody in the barn had settled down to the slumber point I heard a horseman hurriedly approach the barn. I was very uneasy for fear it was a courier with a dispatch for the battery to turn out and go to the river, as the pickets were still firing. It was a courier, but he called for the Brock’s Gap Rifles, some of which were with us in the barn, to go to the river, sharp-shooting.
The Brock’s Gap Rifles is a company from Brock’s Gap, Rockingham County, Va., commanded by Captain Winfield (Dr. W.). The majority of the members are first-class marksmen, and if a Brock’s Gap rifleman gets good aim at a Yank at a reasonable distance he generally gives him a pass for immediate use to that “country from whose bourne no traveler returns,” or else invites him to report at the hospital for repairs.
To-day we moved to a woods two miles from the dam, where we camped to-night.
